For years horror fans have been begging for some zombie action figures.
Now, not only do we get some, we get lots! At this year's SDCC I saw
not one, but THREE different zombie lines on display.

Of course there was
Sideshow's sixth scale The Dead line, an in-house property. Then there
are the Land of the Dead figures coming from SOTA. But what about
Dust, the fascinating comic book from Paolo Parente? Yep, that license
has got some zombie figures now too!

Dust is an interesting sci-fi WWII story, in which the Reich use alien
technology to turn the tide in their favor. The Axis and Soviet block
nations manage to steal enough of the technology to create an uneasy cold
war, and all three have vast and powerful war machines developed from the
alien knowledge.

The Reich also does some experimenting, and comes up with a
're-animation' serum. Soldiers of the SS who take this serum are
automatically re-animated upon their death to continue fighting. These
are the Unmensch!

Merit (a U.S. distributor for
many sixth scale manufacturers) had the figures on display with a number of
other Russian, Allied, Japanese and German soliders based on the story at
SDCC. The zombies are a limited run of just 666, and they only had
five available with them at the show - I was just too tempted to pass them
up.

There's also a sixth scale cybernetic ape for the monkey lovers - Markus is
his name I believe - and they have a series of 1/24 figures and vehicles as
well.

The sixth scale stuff is supposed to retail for $45 - $50 each, but
finding it might be tricky. I have a couple suggestions at the end of
the review.

Packaging - ***The artwork for the box is straight from the comic, and has a great visual
pop. The style is great, and works well on the all white background.
They could use a little more descriptive text, and the box is a little
flimsy (mine was smooshed in transit), but the box doesn't waste space, and
it's very collector friendly.

Sculpting - ****
There are at least two different head sculpts for these. They are
inserted randomly I believe, so you might not be able to know in advance
which one you're getting, at least if you're buying from an online source.

Both head sculpts are beautifully undead though, so I wouldn't spend a
lot of time worrying about it. I know that I went back and forth
several times at the show trying to decide which one I like best, and I
could have gone either way.

The head sculpts have lots of rotting, bleeding flesh, with zombie eyes
(appropriate for an action figure for a change!) and textured skin.
The two hands have complex metal-like sculpts, adding to the undead meets
robot appearance of the figure.

The huge ball has a real chain attaching it to the cuff, but I don't
think it's actually removable. There's a ball joint at the wrists, to
position the large ball slightly, and I don't think this allows you to
actually remove the ball from the cuff. I wasn't going to try to hard
anyway. since I hate it when my toys make that snapping sound.

Paint - ***1/2
The paint work on both the head and the hands is excellent, with a nice use of
various finishes to highlight different areas of flesh, metal and blood.

The hands are particularly impressive. Sure, they are a dull color,
but getting plastic to appear as weathered, rough metal isn't all that
easy. The sculpt isn't the major influence in getting that appearance,
it's the paint.

The head paint works well, and brings out the rotting face nicely.
There could be a little more detail around the teeth, but the pictures don't
do the detail work justice.

Articulation - ***1/2
If you've picked up bbi, Dragon or Hot Toys sixth scale figures in the past,
you'll be familiar with the basic body style. Tons of useful
articulation, with a very lightweight design.

There's all the joints you expect in a sixth scale figure, with a couple
minor exceptions. The zombies have a ball jointed neck, but
unfortunately the range of motion is a little limited. The specially sculpted hands have much more articulation
than you're used to though. The ball is jointed at the wrists (with a ball
joint - how appropriate) and the left hand is jointed on every
finger, including the thumb.

The weight of the arms is a bit of an issue though. They are so
heavy that the number of poses they can take are somewhat limited.
High in the air or down by his sides pretty much sums it up, though you can
get creative in having one arm support the other.

The large arms also pop off fairly easily, if you'd like to replace them
with something else. Not sure why you'd want to do that, but it's an
option I suppose. The pop off at the wrists up inside the cuffs, so
all you need to do is add hands.

Accessories - **1/2This is the one category where the figure falls somewhat short of other
sixth scale offerings in this price range. Part of that is probably
doe to the limited nature, and part is due to the cost of the large,
sculpted hands.

He does come with four removable 'nuts' that fit on the stone cuffs.
You can put them on or not, it's really up to you. If you don't, the
underlying pegs are sculpted to appear as stone, so there it doesn't look
like something is missing.

There's also a large wrench, which rhymes with Unmensch. He can
wield it in his left hand, and use it to crush skulls or fix tanks.

Outfit - ***1/2
The outfit consists of his coveralls, boots and scarf. All of the
clothing is dusted - literally - with a powdered substance. Pat him
and it will actually rise up off his clothing, like he's been in the desert
a little too long. That's a great touch, and I won't feel bad when he
gets even more dusty sitting on the shelf.

Each overall has a unique number stitched on the back, 1 through 666.
The stitching is excellent all around, and the outfit is tailored well - not
too tight, but just the right baggy appearance that you expect in a zombie
fashion.

Fun Factor - **1/2
This isn't one of those 'fun' figures, if you know what I mean. He poses
well enough, and if you have a kid into sixth scale monsters, he'll enjoy
him. But I don't see a whole lot of play time coming out of this
particular character.

Then again, he does have that giant spiked ball to smash up those lame
Ken dolls...

Value - **1/2The regular release figures are supposed to retail for around $45.
That's a pretty good price, considering how low the run number is - only
666. And remember, each zombie has his own number on his back.

I did not grade this on what I paid, since they only had numbers 1 - 5 at
the show, and were charging a premium for them.

Things to Watch Out for -
I noticed that the paint on the head is a little easy to chip off - my zombie
now has a few spots on his forehead. Be sure that if you're packing
him back up in the box, you put the plastic bag back over his head to
protect the paint from damage.

Overall - ***1/2The comic is a unique sci-fi twist on an old war, and has some very
visually interesting characters. For fans of zombies, these are a
rather unusual and funky version, well worth checking out at the price
point.

Don't ignore some of the other characters though, including the female
figures. Let me just say yowza, and leave it at that.